Second Thoughts (22 page)

Derek’s motion for him to go ahead also held irritation. Moose disappeared. Connie watched the spot where he’d been, wrapping her arms around herself. Derek turned in a slow circle, looking everywhere. Then his gaze settled on Connie.

“Cold?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Scared?”

She nodded.

She was surprised when he didn’t step forward and put his arm around her. He must be waiting for her to make the first move, which meant that he was confident she would be making a move. That thought reminded her that although he didn’t know it, he was going to be spending the night with her.

The thought alone provoked sensations.

“I think I’m more dumbfounded than scared,” he said, his words bringing her back to the mild night air. He drew his gloves out of his back pocket and pulled them on, motioning for her to do the same. “Here we are, decked out in black and dutifully wearing our skintight gloves, waiting patiently for our cohort, who is casing the house we intend to burglarize. I don’t believe we’re doing this.”

“This isn’t what your brother thought we’d be doing tonight either.”

His head tilted in a quizzical attitude. “Pardon me?”

“Nothing.” She rubbed her gloved hands together, familiarizing herself to the feeling. Then Moose loomed before them so suddenly that she leaped at Derek and knocked him back a step.

“It’s clear,” the big man said. “Let’s go.”

For an instant, Connie was frozen in place. Derek watched her, possibly wondering, or most likely hoping, that she’d back out after all. Then she forced her feet to move, and he fell in step behind her.

“It’s safe,” Moose said as he led the way. “Or at least it’s empty. I don’t know how safe it is. I rang the doorbell and knocked. And checked the downstairs windows and doors, hoping we’d get lucky, but everything is locked up tight. There’s an open window on the second floor, though, that’s near a tree and a wall trellis. We can boost Connie up into the tree and she can check it out.”

“No,” Derek said. “I’ll do it. If I can’t, we’ll jimmy open a door or something.”

“Back off, Derek. I didn’t come along for the ride. I’ll try the window.”

“No, you won’t.”

When he was serious about something, he brought every inch and pound he had into bearing. If they were alone, Connie knew she’d never get near that window. But they weren’t alone. She dropped the argument, waiting until they were next to the tree and beneath the partially opened window.

The lowest branch was still quite high, but it was thick enough to stand upon and go on from there. She hoped she wouldn’t need the help of both men, since one of them wasn’t favorably minded, but that limb was a long way up there.

“The trellis isn’t sturdy enough,” Moose said. “Probably won’t even hold her. The tree is our best shot.”

“Then we’ll break in another way,” Derek said. He’d been studying the tree and the trellis and was looking more and more dubious. “I don’t want Connie up there on her own.”

She said nothing, which might’ve tipped him off, but it didn’t. She waited until he started toward the other end of the house, showing them his back, and she motioned to Moose. Quickly, one foot was in his hands and she was boosted up, but she couldn’t reach the branch. She held on to his head for balance, got one foot onto his shoulder, and reached again for the limb.

“Oh, for…
Shit!
Dammit, Connie, don’t you have even a lick of sense?”

“Help us, Uncle Dare, before she goes sprawling.”

His long line of cussing didn’t stop, but she felt Derek’s steadying hand on her leg and rump. Then she had both feet on Moose’s shoulders and got her arms around the branch. One foot found a knothole in the tree’s broad trunk, her other foot found another one, and then she was on her own.

She walked vertically up the trunk until she could wrap one leg around the branch and wrestle her way onto it. Then, finally, she was safely sitting astride it. She blew her breath out, and Derek finally stopped cussing. The two men were intense in their silence.

She took a long moment to get her breathing back to normal, and another moment to relocate her courage, then she got both feet under her, gripped an overhanging limb for balance, and walked the branch to the house.

The window wasn’t held in place by a locking guard. Neither man had mentioned that possibility, but it had occurred to Connie. Getting back down, if she couldn’t get the window open, would’ve been more interesting than getting up here in the first place.

The window rasped as she pushed it, resisted for an instant, then slid all the way open. She stuck her head inside. The crisp scent of a lemony cleaner hung in the air. It was a bathroom, and the space she was in was a tub and shower combination. If she fell, the porcelain wouldn’t be kind to her.

“Most accidents happen in the bathroom,” she muttered, as she gripped the towel bar and pulled herself halfway in. It didn’t feel sturdy, but it held, and she reached for the shower rod to get herself the rest of the way in.

Once she got her feet and legs under her where they belonged, she took time for an easier breath, then pulled out the flashlight. When the narrow beam showed her the doorway, she clicked the light off and slipped it back into her pocket. She got one foot on the tile floor—and froze with one foot still inside the tub. Her gaze flew back up to the window. A spotlight wavered, passed, then returned and held.

Her heart beat wildly as she bounded for the doorway, and she came close to losing her balance before the leg inside the tub caught up to the rest of her. There was cover down there in the yard for Derek and Moose. Wasn’t there?

Then she pulled up short when the spotlight moved on. She stood in the connecting doorway between bathroom and bedroom. The light traveled slowly over the bedroom window, then went on its way.

Was the spotlight only a routine check?

There wasn’t a part of her that wasn’t trembling. If that light had been thirty seconds sooner, it would’ve caught half of her hanging outside the window.

She
went back inside the bathroom, knees shaky, and stepped up onto the edge of the bathtub to look outside the window to check on Moose and Derek. She heard their sibilant whispers but couldn’t catch the words. She wanted to yell at them to shut up.

Then she realized that Derek was in the tree. She stepped down into the depth of the tub and threw her hands up. “Of all the stupid, numbskull, idiotic…”

“Connie?”

“For crying out loud, you couldn’t wait two minutes for me to get downstairs and open the door?”

“That spotlight scared me. I didn’t like you up here on your own. It should’ve been me up here in the first place.”

To his credit, Connie noted worry in his tone, yet he also sounded peeved that it had been she up here instead of him.

“Watch out. You don’t want to tumble in here headfirst.” She guided his hand to the shower curtain rod. His baseball cap was knocked off his head and she picked it up. She wanted to get out of the tub to give him room, but her way was blocked by a vanity on this end and by Derek at the other end.

“Can’t say this is the smartest move you ever made,” she grumbled, working to get him upright. “Be tough to think of a stupider one.”

After some tricky maneuvering, he was finally on his feet. She replaced his cap where it belonged. One arm had gone around her as he’d searched for balance, and now his other one joined it. She twisted. “That way,” she said, and motioned for him to precede her out of the tub.

“Umm.” He didn’t move. “Been a long time since we shared a shower.” He rested his chin on top of her head. “Although we’ve never before been fully clothed in one.”

“Uh-huh.” Twisting impatiently, she pushed at him. “Move, Derek. That way.” She pointed again, but his hands moved up and down her back, then slipped beneath the hem of her t-shirt.

She stamped her foot. “What do you think you’re doing!”

“Not the best time or place, I know, but do you realize how long it’s been since I held you like this?” He nuzzled the top of her head. “You feel good. You’ve been so careful these past weeks, not even letting me within touching distance. Now that I’ve got you, I don’t think I want to let you go.”

She gritted her teeth. “I don’t believe this.”

“Ouch!”

“Be grateful it was only your shin I kicked. Now let me out of here.”

At the end of some more tricky maneuvering, she’d managed to push her way past him and was out of the tub. “Where’s Moose waiting?”

“
The back door. In the kitchen,” he said. “Ow!”

She turned. “Now what?”

“Vanity has a sharp edge on it,” he mumbled. “Just like you.”

“Then use your flashlight. That’s what it’s for.”

The kitchen’s outside door had three locks on it. She thought she’d never get it open.

“It’s about time,” Moose said, crowding through. He closed the door and pressed his back against it. His gaze was directed upward and his breathing was rapid. “I’m not cut out for this,” he said to the ceiling.

Connie had no time for sympathy. The kitchen had the outside door they stood in front of, then another one that probably led to a garage, and her flashlight picked out two hall entrances. The richer a person was, the more complicated his kitchen had to be? “You said the safe is in his study. Where’s that?”

His head turned as he tried to get his bearings. “I’m not very familiar with this part of the house. But I think…” He paused, then pointed. “Through there.”

Derek was the first one into the hall, stumbled over something, caught his balance and came up swearing.

“Derek, use your light. Please?”

Moose moved around them to take the lead. He had enough sense to snap his flashlight on. It illuminated a hardwood floor that Connie already knew was there because of the noise it was making.

The third door Moose opened, he stepped through. “This is it.” The light played over a royal blue carpet as he walked across the room and then behind an oversized desk. Connie and Derek followed. At least they weren’t making as much noise in here.

“And there it is,” Moose said, as if he’d discovered Aladdin’s lamp. A small safe sat on the lowest shelf of a standing bookshelf, and he knelt in front of it, knees popping. “Looks the same as I remember. Let’s hope he didn’t get smart and take that book out of there and put it in safekeeping where it belongs.”

Now that she was faced with the night’s objective, Connie’s mind seemed to freeze. Her heart was thundering, and her nerves were in overdrive. It was difficult drawing an even breath.

Moose didn’t move for a long moment. Then, swallowing audibly, he put a hand on the combination wheel. “Now both of you are going to have to be quiet. Back off and don’t breathe.”

They became so still and so quiet, they could’ve been part of the furniture. The only sound was a clock ticking somewhere, getting louder and louder, and an occasional grunt from Moose. Straining her ears, Connie discerned the muted whir of the combination wheel as Moose rotated it, but no telltale clicks.

Apparently, he heard no clicks either. He kept spinning, and Connie started fidgeting. Even Derek shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“Uh, Moose?” she murmured.

“Shh,” the big man said, and didn’t look up from what seemed to be his intense scrutiny of the floor. It appeared that his ear was connected to the safe.

Derek’s hand enclosed hers, as if he thought that might help to keep her quiet. She forced herself to count to twenty-five, but then could contain herself no longer. “Maybe he changed safes.”

“It’s the same safe,” Moose said. “Please…shut…up.”

This time, she got all the way to fifteen. “What’s the problem? You said your buddy told you how to do that.”

“I also told you he was my drinking buddy. Our powers of communication may have been somewhat impaired.” His dark shape moved as he looked in her direction. “Aunt Connie, could you maybe find something else to do somewhere else? Something quiet?”

Connie closed her eyes and tightened her fists. Derek’s fingers squeezed hers back. She pushed her tongue against her teeth and didn’t try to stop herself. This time, she was determined to make it all the way to a hundred. The clock ticked louder. Her body was so tense that her legs hurt. She shifted her weight to one foot, then the other.

Fifty. She had to make it at least to fifty.

“All right!”

Connie’s eyes flew open at the same instant the safe’s door swung back. Moose’s penlight came to life, illuminating a plastic-wrapped, thin magazine with a brightly colored cover resting on top of various envelopes and stacks of papers. Connie recognized the silver and black colors of SteelMan, but a small baggie of crushed leaves hid the super hero’s face.

She and Derek stepped closer, barely daring to breathe.

“I actually broke into a safe,” Moose said. He rocked back on his heels. “Damn, I’m good.”

Then his head twisted around. “But now that we’ve got it, what are we going to do with it? I’m afraid to touch it.”

“Me, too,” Connie breathed.

“It’s so valuable, it must require special handling.”